Joint Statement from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assemblyman John J. McEneny,
Co-chair of the Legislative Task Force On Demographic Research and Reapportionment

Last year, the Legislature passed a law requiring that prison inmates be counted in their home communities rather than
their incarceration address for the purpose of redistricting. The Assembly Majority believes that complying with the law as
written is not only the prudent thing to do, it is also the right thing to do. In order to comply with the law, Assembly staff
have been working with the original inmate records provided by Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to ensure
inmates are counted properly. Our work is nearly complete and the results will be made public in the near future.

We urge our task force members to join with us, ensuring compliance with both the letter and intent of the law. This is the
responsible action for the Legislature to take. Regardless of any personal political stance on the prison count issue, we
encourage all task force members to join us in our effort to fully comply with the law as it is written.